Rapper Gift of Gab -- best known as a member of the Bay Area duo Blackalicious -- has announced that after waiting over five years for a follow-up solo release that he would have to really take this one far. Like other planet kind of far, which is why it's titled Escape 2 Mars.

Dropping in October, via Cornerstone Recording Arts Society, the upcoming project was produced mostly at the hands of Bay Area producer DNAEBEATS, with a few tracks also helmed by Hednodic, from Gab's most recent star collabo project The Mighty Underdogs and Crown City Rockers.

On the features side, Del the Funky Homosapien and Brother Ali make appearances on "Dreamin'", while Gab also recruited some of the talent from the Quannum Collective he helped pioneer, including Joyo Velarde, Lateef The Truthspeaker, and Honeycut's vocalist Bart Davenport.

The rapper said keeping things close to home set the stage for the album's inspiration. "People are gonna think this is about Martians, but it's not," Gab explains. "It's more so about taking care of the planet we're on. We might have to escape to Mars or somewhere else if we keep taking the planet we live on for granted."

"I'm not trying to preach to anyone," he continues. "I just think it's important for us to raise the level of consciousness and consideration of these things."

On songs like "Electric Waterfalls" and the title track, lyrically, Gab journeys into these topics directly. Musically speaking, it was also a space age inspiration that led him to break some new personal ground.

"Some of the more electronic feeling songs were new territory me," Gab states. "I didn't really connect with much of that until we went out and did some shows with Bass Nectar and I saw the culture shifting in front of me and thought it was a great thing."

Known for one of live hip-hop's most engaging shows, Gift of Gab will tour the country this fall into the winter and then into the spring, in support of Escape 2 Mars, which hits stores October 27.

The final tracklisting is as follows:

1 - E2MTRO
2 - El Gifto Magnifico - Link to MP3
3 - Lightyears
4 - Dreamin' - ft. Del The Funky Homosapien & Brother Ali
5 - In Las Vegas
6 - Escape 2 Mars
7 - Electric Waterfalls
8 - Richman, Poorman
9 - Someofthepeople
10 - Spotlight
11 - Rhyme Travel
12 - Dreamin' Remix (Only on vinyl LP)